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Recordings › The Role Of Reason In Religion - Mufti Abu Layth · 9 Apr 2018 › Segment 14 of 19

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Do miracles in the Quran break the laws of nature?

muftis iman imaan eemaan eeman jinn jin jinnat jinni sihr sihar jadu jadoo kala jadu sorcery jahannam jahanam jahannum koran quraan al-quran

Miracles and the laws of nature: fish from the sky, demigods, and why reason cannot go

LessonRecorded 9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in IslamSegment 14 of 19 in the recording2018-04-09-S14

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This segment1:05:16 to 1:09:12 · 3 min 56 sGeneral teaching

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No, in Mufti Abu Layth's understanding: Allah does not break the laws He set, so every event called a miracle in the Quran has an explanation within nature, as fish falling from the sky does; abandoning reason would make every religion's claims equally valid.

In more detail

To the question of miracles in the Quran, Mufti Abu Layth first repeats that reason is needed to know other faiths are untrue, since without it every faith could be true. Miracles, he says, exist on a spectrum: if a miracle means breaking the laws of nature, then those laws are Allah's own, and the Quran says His ways never change, so He would not break them. Events that appear miraculous have explanations: frogs falling from the sky in the time of Musa, or fish falling from the sky, have happened in several places and have a documented scientific explanation of how they are picked up and dropped, so they are not against the laws of nature even if they seem so to people. In his understanding everything called a miracle in the Quran has an explanation, some already known and some still being worked on. To those who say he limits Allah, he answers that by the same logic Allah could give Ganesh an elephant head or delegate to demigods as He delegates to angels, so that if reason goes out of the window everything becomes valid. He says people are scared because they were raised on certain stories, demonic possession, black magic, the splitting of the moon or the return of Jesus, without knowing much else about Islam.

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth holds that Allah never breaks the laws He set in nature, so everything called a miracle in the Quran has an explanation within those laws even if not yet known, and that abandoning reason would make every religion's claims equally valid.

In his words

“Allah will never break the laws of the natural world so in my understanding everything you call a miracle in the Quran has an explanation”

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Transcript

machine1:05:16 to 1:09:12 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
1:05:12

first point we have to believe in reason to know other faiths are not true because if you dismiss reason then every faith can be true now come to this question what about miracles well I've explained look miracles are like a spectrum right miracles do exist miracles is like a spectrum what you're what you mean by miracles you're trying to say something that goes against the laws of nature against as in breaks and isn't not part of the laws of me the laws of nature are a laurs laws Allah

1:05:51

says we'll enter I didn't listen until later bill you never find my laws changing like that mice women the way I do things they'll never change Allah has set these laws why would he break his own laws now yes there are events which appear miraculous as in they whoa this doesn't make any sense but they have explanations a good example things like frogs falling from the sky in the time of Moses as an example fish falling from the sky is this not a miracle people than what the hell fish don't live in

1:06:29

the sky nobody fool this is a comedy this this has happened this has happened in several places you just have to go google it'll give you the full explanation the scientific explanation of how this actually happens how they get picked up how how they get later on dropped off now this is not counter reason yes to people it may have seemed oh my god this is against the laws of nature because it's not part of their natural way of looking at things because normally you know fish ain't falling from the sky frogs ain't falling from the sky but it

1:07:06

doesn't mean this is not part of the laws of nature and physics and the world the natural world around us Allah will never break the laws of the natural world so in my understanding everything you call a miracle in the Quran has an explanation yes many of them we probably already know we can know maybe some of them people are still working on them or they still be trying to understand certain things but does it mean it went against the entire laws of nature entire laws of physics that Allah has set in his creation then in that case if that's the case like if I'm gonna say look

1:07:45

there but why are you limiting Allah people say to me yeah but just because you can't explain and it doesn't make sense to you didn't mean a lock onto it true but then that means if that's the case why can't Allah make him make Ganesh have an elephant head why can't Allah do that is he incapable he can why Khan Allah have little demigods he can't is he incapable of having demigods yeah you guys say well he can delegate to angels why can't he delegate to demigods say well Vishnu is gonna

1:08:24

take care of this you know he's gonna take care of this don't worry about it I'm handling this why can't he do that then so if you if reason goes out the window everything goes out the way because then everything can be valid so this it's a it see more dangerous like people get scared and say oh my god you know and I know why they're doing that they're doing that because since they've been small they've been brought up and told certain things about Islam they don't know much about Islam but they just know certain things they know certain stories then all certain myths things like demonic possessions Djinn possess people

1:09:04

black magic happens this happens the moon was split or this happened they know certain stories Jesus is gonna come back all this kind of stuff now if you are told at some point in your life while these things might are not true the the inherent fear is that well if that's not true maybe the rest of the things that I learnt and Islam itself is not true as well and this is the fear that people have that they don't want it because they think if one knocks down maybe they might all knock down so I get why they're scared of that but it is

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Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-04-09-S14, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/14/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, April 9). Do miracles in the Quran break the laws of nature? [Video, segment 2018-04-09-S14, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/14/
Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Do miracles in the Quran break the laws of nature?" Video, segment 2018-04-09-S14, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 9, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/14/
BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-04-09-S14,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Do miracles in the Quran break the laws of nature?}},
  year = {2018},
  month = {4},
  date = {2018-04-09},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/14/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/uuldzklvxvo/s/14/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2018-04-09-S14, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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